


Loose Ends

by TrishaCollins



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen, Jake ties up some loose ends, Post 31, Tom is not sure any of this is real, brief allusion to suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-09-30 14:35:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17225864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrishaCollins/pseuds/TrishaCollins
Summary: In the aftermath of the near disaster of his grandfather's funeral, Tom is left with little choice but to rest in the hospital. Every three days the Yeerk still leaves, but nothing ever changes.Until someone else decides to act.





	1. Chapter 1

He drifted, between the drugs, the fluid in his ears and the fever, he couldn’t do much else. They had strapped his hands down, which was nonsense. His leg was still in traction, lifted above the bed with pins and straps to hold the bone straight. 

Still, it was slightly better than cage time. At least nobody was screaming. 

It was hard to think, hard to focus. He had almost died in the lake, and then he had almost died again while the Yeerks debated if he was too damaged to bother with. 

But they strapped his hands down, because he might rip the needle out of his hand and use it to open a vein. 

Only they controlled his death.

He rolled his head to the side and sighed, letting his eyes fall closed. Mom wouldn’t be back for hours, because he was supposed to be in some sort of experimental treatment to aid in the healing of his leg, and after that visiting hours were over. 

He was pretty sure the Yeerk took extra time in the pool just to get out of being stuck in one place in a damaged, sick body that kept spiking a fever. His body was trying to cook out the infection, and the infection just happened to also be a sentient slug wrapped around his brain that liked to relive the moment his hand had almost stabbed his father. 

Human biology 1, Yeerk….a lot more. 

He’d take the ability to make the Yeerk uncomfortable.

“Tom?” Jake’s voice was soft, almost a whisper. 

He thought for a moment he must be hallucinating, but he opened his eyes, staring up at his baby brother.

Jake was biting his lip, and his eyes had a suspicious sheen to them. Almost like he was about to start crying. 

“How’d you get in ‘ere?” He slurred, confused. He knew there were guards, there had to be guards. 

His stomach dropped. The Yeerk would know that Jake had snuck in.

“You gotta go.” 

Jake shook his head - because really, why would Jake choose now to start listening to him? – and stepped closer to the bed. “I know, Tom.” 

The fever must be spiking again, because nothing in the statement made any more sense than Jake being there, standing in the middle of his hospital room, barefoot and wearing skinny jeans. 

He wrinkled his nose. “Is Rachel dressing you again?”

Jake made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh, mopping at his face with his hand. “We don’t have much time.”

Which was surprisingly accurate. He tugged at his wrists, trying to loosen the straps – not that he could do anything with his hands free, but maybe if he could gesture hard enough Jake would suddenly understand his urgency. 

Jake noticed the motion, and made a face that he couldn’t quite make sense of. Not in context, not on Jake. His little brother undid the restraints with surprising deftness, fingers tangling with his own and squeezing.

He found himself squeezing back, looking up at Jake with quiet confusion. 

“I need.” Jake swallowed, ducking his head and taking a deep, hard breath that made his shoulders shake. “Come on, we’ve got to go. Marco.”

Almost delicately, a gorilla opened the door to his bathroom and walked into the hospital room. < Hey, Tom. > It said, Marco’s voice ringing in his head. 

“…huh.” He said, mystified by the unreality of it. “They must have changed my meds.” 

Jake pulled away, closing his eyes. Ripples of orange and black started forming on his face. “Is everyone – “ < Else in position? > The words broke off as something happened to his jaw, mouth pushing outwards, but transferred to the inside of his skull. 

< Yep. > The gorilla reached up, plucking his IV bag off the stand and putting it in his lap. < Your job is to hold this. >

He closed his hands around it, staring between his brother – who was some horrifying mix of human and tiger at the moment – and the gorilla with Marco’s voice. 

< Sorry if I jostle the leg. Once we get you where you are going, they can fix it. >

He nodded, but still had to suppress a whimper when Marco lowered the leg. Fuck. 

The gorilla slid an arm under him, tucking him into the blanket before it – he – picked him up out of the bed. < Rock a bye baby… >

< Knock it off. > Jake’s voice ordered. < And don’t drop him. Rachel, now. >

The unreality of the situation exploded from there.


	2. Chapter 2

Robot dog aliens. 

He kept glancing at Jake while “Mr. King” leaned over his leg and muttered to his son, adjusting the split by what seemed to be nothing every once in a while. 

It didn’t look human. It didn’t even look Yeerk. It was an elegant, plastic shell that had no real weight to it. 

Erek had pulled it out of the fridge as though everyone kept their medical kits there. Which, being robot alien dogs, maybe they did. 

He kept swallowing back the hysterical laughter that wanted to escape. Because the entire day just bordered on insane. 

Not that his life had been anything but insane from the moment he walked into the Sharing meeting, but still. This was ridiculous. 

“That is what we can do for now.” Mr. King told Jake. “He will need to stay here until it heals.”

“Are you comfortable with that?” Jake’s voice was tinged with sarcasm. “I mean, it is interfering.”

Mr. King shrugged. “I think we can manage.” 

“Right.” Jake crouched down next to him, threading their fingers together again until palm rested against palm. “They’re….they’re a lot. But they will keep you hidden until the leg is better. We can work from there.”

He nodded, studying his little brother, the watery eyes he was trying to hide, the wrinkles in his forehead that made him look older. “Comer.”

Relief flashed over Jake’s face in the moment before he pulled him into a hug, reveling in the feeling of it – arms tight around Jake, Jake clingy and almost limp in his arms. It was a messy hug, he still couldn’t move the leg, but it was the best thing in the world right now. 

Jake sniffed and mopped at his face, not moving away. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah that whole saving me thing was totally your fault.” He muttered.

“For not doing it sooner. For breaking your leg.” Jake looked away. 

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he remembered the weight of the knife in his hand and his dad sitting trustingly next to his body while he screamed and sobbed and begged in the back of his mind. 

He couldn’t deal with the weight of knowing right now. He couldn’t deal with the maybes. Later, when he’d had a chance to process things off of pain meds and away from the pain and the newness of freedom…..maybe he’d be mad.

But right now he just tightened his arms around Jake, and let himself have this moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by an anon ask that @SoloMoon got on Tumblr.


End file.
